This invention relates to article carriers and more particularly to a carrier assembly suitable for being separable into a plurality of units such as 6 or 8-pack beverage carriers.
Various holders for bottles and cans in units of six or more have been proposed such as the interlockable carrier shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,317,081 issued to Cornelius. The '081 Cornelius patent discloses a bottle-carrier adapted to be coupled with other units to provide a composite carrier assembly. The U.S. Pat. No. 3,131,829 issued to Masser and the U.S. Pat. No. 3,851,936 issued to Muller disclose article-carrying containers which are interlockable by dovetailed means.
The Muller and Masser patents are examples of prior art interlocking carriers which have asymmetrical interlocking arrangements that are both difficult to fabricate and time consuming to assemble. The Cornelius patent requires that the carriers be moved in a defined longitudinal manner to separate the units.
It would be highly desirable and it is an object of this invention to provide carrier units which may be readily interlocked into a multi-carrier assembly.
It is another object of the present invention to provide symmetrical container carrying units which may be readily oriented and interlocked to provide a composite carrying case assembly wherein the user may lift a center carrier for separation from a pair of end carriers.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a multiple unit carrier assembly as set forth in the above objects wherein the units may be readily interlocked by dovetail interlocking structure together with a releasable detent locking arrangement.